Definition

Noun: 1. A style of abstract painting: A style of abstract painting, particularly associated with the mid-20th century, where the physical act of applying paint to the canvas is emphasized as a crucial part of the finished work. The focus is on the spontaneous, energetic, and often large-scale process of painting itself. 2. A specific art movement: The term specifically refers to the work of a group of New York-based artists in the 1940s and 1950s, known as the New York School or Abstract Expressionists, who pioneered this method. It was a significant movement that established American art as independent from European traditions.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The museum's new exhibit features several large-scale action paintings from the 1950s.
  • In action painting, the brushstrokes and drips of paint record the artist's physical movement.
  • Jackson Pollock's drip technique is the most famous example of action painting.

Advanced Usage

• As a concept: The term can be used more broadly to describe any painting where the evidence of the artist's vigorous physical process is a dominant feature of the artwork's meaning and aesthetic.
  • While he worked decades later, his vigorous, gestural technique shows a clear debt to the ideas of action painting.

Variants and Related Words

• Abstract Expressionism (n): The broader art movement to which action painting belongs, encompassing both gestural, action-based work and more contemplative, color-field painting.
• Gestural abstraction (n): A synonym often used interchangeably with action painting, highlighting the importance of the painter's gesture.

Synonyms

• Gestural painting
• Gestural abstraction

Related Idioms/Phrases

• (To be) a product of the action: While not a common idiom, this phrase captures the philosophy behind action painting—that the artwork is the direct result or record of the painter's physical act.
  • The canvas was not a picture of an emotion, but was itself a product of the action and energy of its creation.

Noun

1. a New York school of painting characterized by freely created abstractions; the first important school of American painting to develop independently of European styles